


One-Word Prompts

by Lagtim3



Category: Milo Murphy's Law
Genre: (more tags/ships/characters to be added as I add more prompts), Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-06 05:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18844945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lagtim3/pseuds/Lagtim3
Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin; ficlets based off one-word tumblr prompts!





	1. Exercise

Balthazar, crouched by the bathtub in his pajama bottoms, scowled at the faucet as if the heat of his glare would make the water warm up. It had been a good two minutes already, yet it was still frigid. Grumbling, he turned the tap off and stood up, not looking forward to talking to--or, more like ‘yelling at’--their nigh-deaf landlord about a busted water heater.

But, no... wait. There were a few water droplets lingering high on the shower curtains, he noticed. The bath mat was also a tad damp and, now that he was paying attention, he caught the scent of coconut oil lingering in the air.

“Vinnie, have you taken a shower today?” Balthazar called out. While his partner was, shockingly enough, the early bird of their duo, he usually preferred to shower in the evenings. He also had a tendency to shower at his leisure and, if Balthazar remembered correctly, he’d done so just the other night.

He couldn’t make out Vinnie’s answer from the other side of the apartment. It sounded vaguely affirmative, and also like it was being shouted around a mouthful of breakfast. Balthazar sighed and trudged over to the kitchen.

Yes, Vinnie had definitely bogarted all the hot water. Even though it was pulled back into a ponytail, Balthazar could tell by the way Vinnie’s hair poofed out when it was freshly washed, cared for, and free of styling product. Vinnie was already dressed for the day, too, his outfit consisting of a worn beater with a local band logo on it and an older pair of his tracksuit bottoms that Balthazar had converted into shorts (‘waste not, want not’ and all that.) Balthazar quirked an eyebrow.

“What’s with the...?” Instead of finishing his question, Balthazar just gestured to Vinnie in general.

“You not hear what I said?“ Vinnie asked, half a bagel in hand.

“I heard a series of ‘mmph’s which I took as a ‘yes’.”

“Well, yeah, but what I said was I showered ‘cause I wanted to tag along with ya when ya head to the gym today.”

Balthazar stared, incredulous, as Vinnie continued stuffing his face with empty carbs. “You want to accompany me to the gym?” he asked, making sure he heard right.

“‘S what I said, yeah. It’s Wednesday, right?” Vinnie took another bite. “Why d’ya gotta take a shower beforehan’ anywaysh?” he mused through a mouthful of bread. “Like, yer gettin’ clean jusht ta go out ‘n get all grosh ‘n schweaty again.”

Balthazar squinted suspiciously. “Who are you, and what have you done with Dakota?”

Vinnie barked out a laugh, a few crumbs sailing across the kitchen while he tried to not choke on his food. “C’mon, Bal, a guy can’t wanna get in better shape?”

Balthazar quirked a stern eyebrow, arms crossed as he approached Vinnie. “I made a comment to you, once, about being in better shape, and your retort was ‘Round is a good enough shape.’”

“And it _is._ ” Vinnie shrugged one shoulder and looked off to the side. “Like... to a point. Don’t get me wrong, gettin’ healthy and bein’ all big ‘n strong ‘n junk’s good, ‘n all that, but I actually got a different motivator. Er, I guess ya could say two.” Vinnie grabbed another bagel out of the bag, about to take a bite before it was snagged right out of his hands. “Hey, ‘scuse you!” 

“Bread makes you fat,” Balthazar smirked, breaking it apart slipping it into the toaster.

“Rude.”

Balthazar grabbed the cream cheese from the fridge. “Speaking of ‘rude’, I don’t mind you coming with me at all, but I _would_ appreciate it if you didn’t hog all the hot water next time.”

“Ohhh, whoops… yeah, my bad.”

“What is it you’re wanting to work on, anyhow? Arms, legs, endurance training, general weight loss?”

“Chest.”

“Chest?”

“Yep. I mean, I’m fine with bein’ husky but just _look_ at this!” Vinnie complained, emphatically gesturing to the problem area with both hands. “I already shelled out like, three grand t’get these stupid things lopped off, but now I got freakin’ moobs! It's like they’re tryin’ ta grow back!” He crossed his arms, scowling. “I’m bein’ haunted by the vengeful ghost of discarded knockers, or somethin’.”

Balthazar grabbed his bagel from the toaster and smirked at Vinnie. “Vengeful ghost, eh? So you’re saying you need to... ‘excorcise’?”

Vinnie’s scowl broke and he grinned, laughing. “Ah, I can’t believe I didn’t think ‘a that!”

“We’ll need to pray to the father, son, and ‘swoly’ ghost.”

“You got that one off a tee-shirt, cheater.”

“It’s the ‘spirit’ of the thing, though, isn’t it?”

“You’re stealin’ my schtick, here, Bal!”

Both of them in chipper moods, Balthazar scarfed his breakfast and changed clothes while Vinnie got their water bottles together and located the car keys. Ready to go, they headed to the parking lot and hopped in the old beater. The Folkswagon Back-Tracker was almost as bad of a car as it had been a time-machine (before they’d been DNA-locked out of the system,) and Balthazar had to take a minute to try and coax the blasted thing to start.

Vinnie sang a little ditty while he waited, happily tapping out a beat on the dashboard. “We’re goin’ to the gym, we’re goin’ to the gym, and then we’re gonna--”

“ _No._ Bad Dakota!” Balthazar reached over and gave Vinnie a light smack on the hands as the car stuttered stubbornly to life. “Don’t you _dare_ start with that, I’m _not_ dealing with _yet another_ ‘insert-activity-here’ song being stuck in my head all bloody day!”

Vinnie fake-pouted, but continued to hum and mutter while tapping. They’d gotten two whole blocks down the road before Balthazar let out an aggravated sigh. “And then we’re gonna get some exercise,” he said flatly, defeated. “It’s going to be a long day.”

“Yeah, hopefully,” Vinnie chuckled.

“I’ll remind you that you said that once I have you doing reps on the bench-press.”


	2. Earth

**\-- SPOILER WARNING FOR THE SEASON 2 FINALE! --**

* * *

 

"--So then all the Octalians chained up, and mimicked Orgaluth, which caused all of them to absorb some of her ions, and it got spread out far enough that the whole bubble collapsed! I’m pretty sure Orgaluth’s still got her fair share of Murphy’s law to deal with compared to everyone else, but she’s got a whole city to back her up now. And that’s how we saved a planet!” Milo finished.

"You forgot about the giant bipedal hairy swordfish thing we ran into on the way back," Zack added.

"Well, yeah," Milo shrugged, "but that was just incidental and not really relevant to the story. So!" he addressed the other kids at the bus stop with his ever-chipper attitude, "what'd _you_ guys do this weekend?”

The group at the bus stop was silent for a few moments before Mort piped up.

“‘Hairy swordfish thing’?”

“ _Giant bipedal_ hairy swordfish thing,” Melissa corrected. “I have pictures!”

The school bus pulled up as her phone was being passed around, and everyone started to load up, peppering Melissa, Zack, and Milo with excited questions. Milo, as usual, would be the last to hop on (lest the bus door malfunction,) but a shout caught his attention before he could.

“Hey! Wait, hold up! Hold the bus, _hold the bus!”_ called a very familiar voice coming from an entirely unfamiliar face. The gangly boy sprinted down the sidewalk, towing along a more robust kid by the sleeve, and they both came to a stumbling halt right in front of Milo, hunched over and panting. The taller of the two had a shock of shaggy cyan hair, while the other sported a loose bun that was almost too orange to be natural.

Milo stepped out of the doorway, gesturing inside. “After you!”

"Why, _thank_ you, _‘fellow kid’!"_ said the blue-haired one with a wink. Milo finally placed the voice.

“Wha-- _Loab?!”_

The Octalian grinned proudly. “The one and only! Pretty convincing getup, eh?” he asked, holding up his hands and wiggling his fingers while Kohn caught his breath.

“I’ll say! How are you even _doing_ that? Don’t you guys have to hold your breath to shape-change?”

Kohn perked up. “Here,” he managed to get out between breaths, “check it out!”

He turned around and held his hair up; a nondescript white chip was attached to the back of his neck, pulsing with orange light every now and again. “The latest in Octalian stealth tech!”

“Neat!” said Milo. “What is it?”

“Well, without goin’ into _too_ much detail, when we Octalians hold our breath, our neuromorphic system activates ‘til we release it. But _this_ amazing little doohickey plugs right into our neural network, and uses, like, electromagnetic currents and stuff to create and hold a pre-programmed shape!” Kohn grinned. “Pretty awesome, right?”

“Although,” Loab butted in, “there _are_ a few catches. First, we can only program one shape per chip; second, we’re stuck in this shape as long as the chip is stuck to us; and third, it takes a few minutes to be safely removed.”

Kohn waved him off. “Eh, details.”

“This is really cool and all, guys, but what are you _doing_ here?” Milo frowned with worry. “Did something happen to Orgaluth? Is there another big disaster you guys need help with? Or--”

“No no, kid! Nothing like that, don’t you worry.”

“Kohn and I have been sent to… well, to study you! Get some field experience dealing with Murphy’s-Law-type-stuff at the side of the master, you know?” said Loab, before his chipper smile turned a tad sheepish. “That’s, uh… that’s okay, right?”

“As long as there’s no more abduction attempts, I think I can let it slide,” Milo laughed, his voice pitching up in excitement. “Man... I knew my life would never be ‘normal’, but this really is something! First the plant apocalypse, then saving an entire planet, and now I’m going to school with _aliens!”_

“Woah, hey, hush, not so loud!” Loab scrambled to clamp a hand over Milo’s mouth. “Keep it on the down-low, kid. This is a Class Ipsilon planet, so we can’t let _any other humans_ know about us being here! We made an exception for you because of the whole ‘end-of-our-world’ thing,” he explained, lowering his hand. “And your friends coming along for the ride? _Completely_ unaccounted for.”

Kohn grimaced. “Yeeeeeah, Captain’s off at the Galactic Senate right now gettin’ grilled over breaking, like… I dunno, twenty--”

“Forty-three.”

“--Forty-three different Galactic Code of Ethics violations, doin’ what we did.”

Milo frowned. “Is she gonna be okay? I mean, if it weren’t for her, Octalia would be done for, right? Or, wait… if what you guys did was a violation, are you two even supposed to _be_ here?”

Loab and Kohn shared a look, then shrugged. Milo sighed, rubbing his head. “Oh boy.”

They were silent for a moment before Milo piped up again. “Hey, what’s ‘Class Ipsilon’ mean?”

“It means that this’s a hick planet--ow!” Kohn rubbed his ribs where Loab had elbowed him. “What? _It is!_ They haven’t even colonized their own moon yet, c’mon!”

“Don’t be _rude_ , Kohn, we’re guests--”

“So, you guys are some of the aliens Milo was talking about, right?”

Loab and Kohn blanched, and slowly looked up. Every window on that side the bus had been pried open, each and every kid crowded around them, some hanging out and trying to get a good look at the two new ‘kids’. Melissa snickered while Zack waved at them.

Loab gave a lopsided smile that looked more like a grimace. “...Nnnnno,” he tried. “Aliens? _Psssht!_ That’s not, that--what, what, uh... gave you that... idea?” he trailed off.

Kohn just shrugged. “Yeah, we’re aliens--ow! _Hey!_ Would you _knock it off_ already?” he griped, giving Loab a retaliatory punch on the arm for the second elbow-jab he’d just gotten. “I’ve had ribs for all of ten minutes, give ‘em a break!”

“ _Why_ did you _say that?!”_ Loab fumed, rubbing his shoulder.

Kohn rolled his eyes. “Just ‘cause it’s a hick planet don’t mean they’re stupid, y’know, we obviously blew it already. Plus,” he added, slinging an arm around Milo’s shoulder, “they spend all day with this guy, right? We can learn stuff from ‘em! Hey, you guys are cool right?”

“Totally!”

“Sure.”

_“Do you guys really look like space octopuses with siphons and tentacles and stuff?!”_

“Yeah, spaceman, we’re cool.”

And a collection of other affirmations came pouring down from the bus windows. The bus driver had a pair of headphones in and wasn’t even paying attention; as far as they knew, the kids were watching the usual Murphy antics.

“See?” Kohn grinned, adjusting his backpack straps as he hopped on the bus. “We’re good, Lo’.”

Loab grumbled, but followed his partner onto the school bus, Milo taking up the rear. Zack waved the trio over to the empty space in front of himself and Melissa as the bus drove off. Milo and Loab were both lanky enough for Kohn to squeeze in and have all three of them on the seat.

Bradley, sitting in front of them, stuck his head over the back of his seat, quirking an eyebrow. “How did you two manage to get put on the student list, anyhow? Some sort of hacking, or... I don’t know, alien mind-control?”

The Octaliens exchanged a look.

“...Student list?”

“Uh… we didn’t?”

“Ah, crap.”

Loab sighed and sank down in his seat. “This is gonna be a problem, isn’t it?”

Zack shrugged with a smile. “We’ll build that bridge when we get to it.”

“Yeah,” Melissa reassured them. “If _that’s_ the worst problem we’ll have to handle today, then today’s a good day.”

Somewhere beneath them, there was a resounding **_crash_ **, and the bus jumped sharply before grinding to a halt.

Zack groaned. “You _had_ to tempt it?”

“My bad.”

“Alright, you two,” said Milo, handing Loab and Kohn a helmet each as the bus began to roll backwards. Every other student reached under their seat and pulled out a helmet of their own. The driver had already been wearing one. “Get ready for your first lesson in Murphy’s Law!”

Kohn shrunk down in his spot. “Is it too late to haul it back to the ship?” he squeaked.

Loab gulped. “Yup.”

Melissa reached over and ruffled their hair. “Cheer up, my calamari compadres, you’ll be fine.”

And--some how, some way--they were.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been really wanting to write some MML fics, but I’m not in the habit of writing regularly yet (or producing any form of art on a regular basis yet,) which I wanna fix. 
> 
> Feel free to either leave a comment here, or hit me up on tumblr (@lagtim3) if you wanna submit a prompt!  
> Just give me a random word, and I’ll write a ficlet for it. (You can optionally include a particular character or ship you’d like to see.) 
> 
> My main priority is currently ‘regularly-occurring quantity’ over the ‘it’s gotta be perfect’ aspect, but I also haven’t really written much of anything besides outlines and notes recently, so I’d definitely appreciate any constructive criticism given! Thanks!!


End file.
